Eleven years ago…

…me and Lawrance met, on a boat. It is our anniversary day. Lawrance is in Holland, and we use the weekend to dismantle part of my office desk and another book case in the living room. After the book case is gone, I say something to Lawrance, and we look at each other in disbelieve: we both hear the echo! Not really a surprise, though. There are only two sofa’s and a seat left in the living room. And I have tiles on the floor. But it certainly tells us one thing: it’s getting empty.

We tidy up the cellars and the garage. I hoover garage, cellars and my now very spacious office. And that’s the house ready for the Open Houses Day.

Last Thursday I took my eight boxes to IJmuiden. They were put on a pallet and shrink wrapped. And Friday night they shipped out to Scotland.

Pallet One

Around two o’clock we make our way to IJmuiden. The plans are to have a meal in IJmuiden and then I will go back to Doorwerth. Lawrance has to load very early tomorrow morning, and I don’t want to get up at that time.

When we get to the yard, for some unknown reason I decide to check my email. That suddenly changes all the plans we had for tonight:

WE HAVE A BOAT !!!

They accepted our (final) offer for Wea-Ry-Tired, and if the survey doesn’t show any major faults, then we have our new home. Yes! So in stead of going home, I stay in IJmuiden to celebrate this very good news.

Now things really get complicated. We have to use our holidays to take Wea-Ry-Tired from Overwater Marina to Scarisbrick Marina. And try to cancel our Black Prince boat. We think that we need more than three weeks to get settled in, so Lawrance has to extend his holiday. And I have to work very hard to get everything packed, and across to Scotland. While having a lot of work for one of my clients as well. What do they mean by: We’re retired?